Hey folx! It’s time for the September 2021 edition of 5 Interesting Things. It’s a short round up of things I’ve found that are: potentially actionable, inspiring, thought-provoking. Let’s get to it!

Human augmentation: where it’s at and where it’s headed – Sure, it feels kind of funny to talk about futuristic augmentations to the body at a time when we’re fighting a rather large contingent of anti-science in the middle of a pandemic, but looking at where we’re going helps me cope with the present. (And indeed, I wrote a book about this sort of thing). This is a round up of current and upcoming technologies that will affect what it means to be human.

Making honey without bees and milk without cows – Food is going to be very different in the future. This is one way things might change. As Spock would say: fascinating.

How to design a sailing ship for the 21st century? – This magazine has some interesting, thoughtful pieces on how sometimes simpler, tried and true technologies can be more effective. This article talks about how it’s difficult to design a carbon neutral sailing ship.

This Pipe Transfers Heat 100x Faster than Copper – A short video on a metal that’s super efficient at heat conduction. A handy technology given our fast heating world.

DNA jumps between animal species – An astonishing piece revealing just how much we still have left to learn. If Mr. Robinson was given career advice today, it would be: “One word: genetics.”

That’s it for this month. What did you like in this list? What didn’t you like? Answer in the comments below.

I read a lot. Articles, clips, books, magazines. I quite often come across things that I wish more people knew about. Recently, it dawned on me I could actually do something about that. (I’ve only been running this blog for several years now. I guess I’m a slow learner.)

Soooo, today I’m introducing what I hope will be a monthly feature: 5 Interesting Things. It’s a short round up of things I’ve found that are: potentially actionable, inspiring, thought-provoking. Let’s get to it!

The Whitest Paint Ever Could Block the Sun and Cool Earth “Blocking” is not the right word here. “Reflecting” would be more accurate. This one is interesting because it’s potentially a major game changer – and one that you could use. While we work to lower our carbon emissions, we could also be working to lower the temperature and reduce our air conditioning bills. This would be particularly useful on the top of all those flat buildings that are generally baking hot in the heat of summer. Know someone who has a flat roof? Forward this to them.

Carbon Robotics Talking of game changing, here’s one for agriculture. This company makes robots that get rid of weeds. This has the potential to reduce the need for herbicides, which will be better for human health and also our waterways (“runoff” is a major problem in agriculture.) The machines aren’t cheap, but no worse than most farm equipment. Know a farmer? Let them know.

Is Big Brother Listening? No, and yes. A privacy tech worker offers an explanation for why it seems like your devices are listening to you, even if you don’t have Alexa or Siri enabled. Key takeaway: “If my phone is regularly in the same GPS location as another phone, they take note of that. They start reconstructing the web of people I’m in regular contact with.The advertisers can cross-reference my interests and browsing history and purchase history to those around me. It starts showing ME different ads based on the people AROUND me.”

How Cities Will Fossilize. We human beings need to think long term much more often. This article encourages us to think about DEEP time. A fascinating read.

Bamboo: The Tradition of the Future. This video is a short introduction to the many, many uses of bamboo. Bamboo has a growth rate of up to a meter/day (!) and has structural properties equal to that of steel and concrete. We should be looking hard at it, rather than logging old growth forests.